Personal blog update regarding desktop search, general search, and the
trials of selling during late December.
All work copyright Larissa R. Young, unless otherwise
noted.
**************************************************
It’s that time again… time for “What mid-90’s catch phrase will spice up our ads?!?!” Take a look, and let me know what you think.
I suppose it’s better than abusing an unsuspecting, cross-eyed kitten.
At least they’re actually getting ad-play and having success in running their campaign. Yes, hooray for mid-December, when contacting anyone of influential status is about as easy as avoiding mall-parking-lot-chaos on weekends. I’m not the only one out there who wants to stay home and bake to my heart’s content, definitely, but the least people could do is set up an auto-responder. Something along the lines of: “Hi, thanks for emailing me. As of December 5th, I have collected my paycheck, and am in hibernation for the next 30 days. If this is a sales rep, HAHAHHAHAH!!! Good luck hitting that quota. If this is my secretary, feel free to contact me by the uber-private cell phone and secret email address I gave you over brunch last weekend. If this is my wife, I’ll be out golfing again, just like last weekend.”
With that out of the way, let’s talk about something that both amuses and mildly disturbs me – desktop search. This nifty little topic was something I ran across today (yet again) in one of HostReview’s daily news articles. First it was Google, in October. Then if memory serves me correctly it was MSN, followed closely by Yahoo, and now… Ask Jeeves. Let’s check out the opening paragraph, shall we?
HostReview.com
Wednesday, December 15, 2004; 02:16 PM
…”Ask Jeeves Desktop Search helps people overcome the challenges of
information overload by enabling them to quickly and easily search the
hundreds, even thousands, of files, word-processing documents, presentations,
spreadsheets, photos, music and video files, applications and email messages on
their computers.”
The challenges of information overload, why I do declare! So let’s take a general look at this… the user types in keywords and it searches the documents and files stored on your computer. Interesting, I always wondered what they would do when that little “Search” feature in your Start Menu went out of style. Maybe you can get it to match your iPod’s Burberry color scheme for winter?
Okay… enough with the sarcasm, what other little perks are they giving us to go with this handy search feature?
“Product highlights include: Fresh, Full-Text Index: Upon installation of the small (750K) application, Ask Jeeves Desktop Search creates an index of the information stored on a person's computer; Fast, Flexible Search: Like searching the Internet, users simply type key words into a search box to let Ask Jeeves Desktop Search scour their computer for matching results.”
Not bad, except for that pesky little index it created. Looking past the obvious easy-archive functionality of it, “Ask Jeeves expects to add new functionality prior to the formal launch of the product in 2005. Some of these features include expanded support for Outlook, integration of desktop results and Web search results, and PDF support.”
Interesting. The 2005 additions should at least make it seem less intrusive and more like a fashionable, fun piece of eye candy, the way good technology should be.
After that, let’s see what curveball MSN is throwing at us. They’ve got an “MSN Toolbar Suite (Beta)”, oh! Looks like that includes (drumroll) “… breakthrough desktop search functionality that helps consumers quickly find virtually any type of document, media file or e-mail message on their Windows®-based personal computer.”
As opposed to the built-in Windows-based search functionality we already have? YES, says Microsoft! “Now consumers don't have to spend valuable time sifting through an enormous amount of information; instead, they can quickly find precisely what they need. The integrated suite of tools streamlines the process of finding and acting on information from PCs by combining the ease of a Web search with the richness and power of the PC environment.”
At least now they’re basically just calling it an updated version of the same old thing. As long as it’s not referred to as “new AND improved”, we shouldn’t have a problem. Except that “the MSN Toolbar Suite is built on the current Windows security and privacy model, and respects the privacy of multiple users on a single PC by utilizing the Windows authentication and user account management infrastructure, helping to provide consumers with a better-protected and more private desktop searching experience.” Ahh… Windows security and privacy, I simply cannot wait.
Looking back to last week, courtesy of MediaPost(.com)’s newsletters, “it comes as no surprise that Yahoo! is entering the desktop search arena - desktop search is, after all, along with local search services, one of the next big growth opportunities for the search market. Yahoo! announced its plan to offer a desktop search tool late yesterday and says it will launch the free tool in January. Yahoo! says the tool is capable of sorting through more than 200 different types of data.”
The other thing that Tobi Elkin is saying is that “Yahoo!'s desktop search tool won't run within a browser, which means that desktop searches are separate from Web searches. The Minute thinks this sounds sensible. If I know the information resides within my PC, why would I want to go to the Web to search for it? I wouldn't.”
Now let’s look back to around October 15th.
(Also from MediaPost) “As expected, the search giant unveiled a beta version of a desktop search tool it's calling Google Desktop. The move, announced yesterday, signals Google's intention to take on Microsoft in the desktop search space. It was rather inevitable that Google would go after the Web search market. After all, there's ad revenue in them thar hills.
The Google Desktop will allow people to search e-mail in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, chat in AOL Instant Messenger, and view Web pages in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. The tool also will enable text searches and searches of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.”>
Again with the classiness. I want to like this all, really I do, but for some reason I am still not swayed for the idea. However, one last bit from MediaPost’s November works… “Lastly, to address the conspiracy theory that this is part of Google's plan for world domination, or to at least emphasize paid results even more, consumers who try Google Desktop fall in love with it. It's amazing to hear their reactions. The point, as usual for Google, is to cater to its users first, and advertisers second. There's no indication that this philosophy changed since it went public.”
Don’t get me wrong – I am all for technological advances. Sometimes though, it just makes you wonder. For example... how about instead of a faster way to search through all the crap you’ve got stored in your /mp3 or /supers3cr3tpr0n folders, what about a faster method of organizing it? On that note, add a nice feature to help you further hide it from people who want to take away the high-quality collection of Yanni versus Alien Space Midget Babes you’ve got.
There’s always 2005, I suppose.
